Fallout: Where Loyalty Lies
by Tayag501
Summary: This fan fiction follows the story of Corporal Robert Thomson, a loyal but blind soldier. All of this changes however when he survives a fatal ambush and is taken under the wing of a Ranger. The Ranger becomes a strong influence on him and teaches him that the N.C.R that he swore to may not be on who they say they are.
1. Chapter 1: The Brewing Sandstorm

Chapter 1: The Brewing Sandstorm

Camp: Fire Cobra, Junktown, N.C.R

Time: 0700hrs

Date: 22/07/2277

Gun fire I can hear gun fire everywhere, I find myself lying on the ground with the dirt all over me, _are we under attack_? I look around distraught and I see the dead bodies of my fallen comrades around me, _was it a grenade?_ As I was trying to regain my focus I saw a black figure on the horizon heading towards me, as the figure got closer I was able to identify that he was my squad mate Eren and I was able to hear him, he was calling out my name "Thomson!" Wanting to run towards him I try to stand but a burst of pain erupts in my lower back and I fall back down to the ground face first_ damn it, am I going to die here? Is this on how my dreams of being a soldier end?_ Eren finally makes it to me and turns me over to see if I was still alive "Thomson, hey man you still breathing?" I don't respond, I can't respond the pain in my back was so overwhelming that I couldn't even say a word. Eren continued to call out my name seeing if I would respond "Thomson! Thomson! Thomson…"

I wake up on my bunk _it was just a nightmare?_ I look around and I see Eren by the entrance of the barracks calling me out.

"Thomson, Thomson, hey Thomson come on man wake up."

I slowly get up and sit on the edge of the bunk sweat coming down my face, must've been from the excitement of the nightmare. I look at Thomson waiting for him to make a smart comment.

"Good God Thomson, I know it gets hot out in the desert but the sun's not even out yet and you already look like shit." Eren gets closer to me then gets down to my eye level "Hey what's wrong buddy had a bad dream?" I look at him and say, "You can say that sure." Eren then gets up and pats me on the back three times "Well get yourself washed up and meet me at the LT's tent we're going to be debriefed for our mission." I nod at him as my response then he gets back up and walks out of the barracks. I look down to the ground for bit thinking about my nightmare before I get up and walk towards the bathroom. I do my usual morning routine washing up and shaving then switched out my sweat drenched white shirt for a dry one, afterwards I put on my khaki colored uniform and my khaki colored breastplate then grabbed my Service Rifle and headed out to the LT's tent.

As I made my way to the LT's tent I greeted my fellow NCR troops with the usual good morning, one even stopped me to have a quick cup of coffee with him before I get sent out. I finally reached the LT's tent and entered to see the rest of my squad in it, as soon as I entered their focused shifted to me even the lieutenant's.

"Morning Corporal Thomson finally decided to wake up?"

The lieutenant's comment made me felt embarrassed but I responded with a joke "Sorry LT didn't hear the morning, cock, calling." The squad laughs from my response and so does the LT. As much as the lieutenant was laughing he quickly changed back to his serious officer attitude "I'll give you that corporal but please, let's get back to business." The laughing then quickly subsided and everyone's focus went back to the lieutenant. I myself made my way to the front of the squad so I can hear the LT's briefing better.

"Alright Domino Squad listen up your main objective for this mission is to go to the trading town, Termina and help out the troops stationed there-." Private Vash bothered on what the LT just said he decides to abruptly interrupt the LT's brief "What the hell LT, I thought this was a mission not some sort relocation to another base!" The LT gives him an irritated look then responds with an angered tone "Well Private if you're that thirsty to see some bloodshed then you'll be happy to know that you and you're squad aren't going there just to be relocated to another base!" the squad's curiosity gets peeked now knowing that they're not just being relocated. "No you and your squad are going there to eliminate a gang known as the Sandmen." The LT brings down a folder to the table in front of him and opens it; we look down and see photos of what the gang members' look like, the LT resumes back to his speech "These deranged psychopaths believes that we're violating the sacred land of their deity and now wants to remove us. Their little raiding tactics on the town has had no effect thanks to troops stationed their but now they're aware of that and have switched from attacking us to attacking the caravans that go there, clever little bastards. If these attacks keep happening the troops that are stationed there will eventually run out of supplies and will be overrun, the guys down there can't spare the man power to hunt these guys down so your squad will be given the task of assisting the troops stationed in Termina on eliminating the Sandmen. A troop transport is ready to bring you there so just go to main entrance to get going, any questions?" I raise my hand and asked "How many raiders are we facing here?" The LT tries to remember on the number of hostiles but forgets so instead he says "We don't know exactly, there have been reports of hundreds attacking an outpost at once so expect heavy casualties when you find them, anymore?" No one says a thing "Good, now get your butts on the truck and get going, dismissed." The squad turns around and leaves the tent and heads towards the trucks. On our way to there you can clearly tell that we we're split on how to feel about this mission, some of us like Private Vash was thirsty for blood and can't wait to get there while the rest of us like me and Eren were a bit more cautious. The number of Raiders we're expected to face doesn't exactly bring our hopes up, _with odds against us like that what can_?

We finally arrive at the main entrance of the camp and we see the truck waiting for us to get on. A woman in NCR fatigues gets out of the driver seat and walks to our squad leader, Staff Sergeant Corvo, "_You the pretty lady that's gonna take me and my squad?"_ The woman gives him a glare.

"_Yes and this 'pretty lady' has a name by the way…"_ Corvo smirks a bit "And what would that be?" she walks a little closer to him _"It's Sirini, 1__st__ Lieutenant Sirini_." Corvo's eyes widens and he takes a step back and snaps into attention "_SQUAD ATTENTION_!" the whole squad follow suits and we stand at attention meanwhile Sirini laughs from Corvo's reaction. "_As you were Staff Sergeant, maybe next time you decide to hit on a girl you should check the brass on her collar first before checking out her ass. Anyways if you're all here and accounted for jump onto the back we're leaving now_" she turns around and goes back to the driver seat while the rest of us hops aboard the truck and sits down. Sirini pokes her head out and turns to us and shouts "_It's gonna be a long ride to Termina I suggest you and your squad get some sleep until we get there!_" she goes back inside and drives the truck out of the base and straight towards Termina.

Everyone in my squad falls asleep on our way to Termina including me, but instead of enjoying a peaceful nap I was haunted by the same nightmare throughout the whole ride. I woke up at the same moment as I did this morning but instead of Eren calling me out it was my squad mate Gillian. I look at her with a confused expression on my face and asked on what's wrong? She tells me that she was worried and that she might've seen a raider behind a billboard that we passed a minute ago. I decide to wake everyone up from their sleep and warn them, knowing the place we're going to it wouldn't surprise me if we're being watched right now. After waking everyone up and catching them up to speed with the situation we all get out of our chairs and sit at the floor of the truck and hugged as much cover as we can. We scan the surrounding area and made sure to keep an eye out for any raider we see, Eren sitting directly behind me taps my shoulder and says "_Hey you know what? It's gonna really suck if we get killed before anything even happens huh?"_ I was a little disturbed by his joke but I respond "_Well then just don't die." _We both laugh for a bit but our laughing was quickly subsided when a bullet hits the side of our truck; we lower ourselves even more to gain cover. No one dared trying to spot the sniper because everyone was too scared of being shot in the head, so instead of looking up we all kept our heads down. For ten straight minutes there was an uneasy feeling around us, the sniper fire stopped but we weren't completely sure if we were safe yet. I look around and saw that everyone was still too scared to move, I don't know on what comes over me but I decided to step up and peek over the side but as soon as my head went over the edge a loud explosion goes off and everything became black.


	2. Chapter 2: A Second Chance

Chapter 2: A Second Chance

Termina, N.C.R

Time: 1500hrs

Date: 22/07/2277

I open my eyes and I find myself on the ground and behind an upside down troop transport truck. My head was throbbing and all I can hear is gun fire, the gun fire sounded pretty intense with all these automatic weapons firing. I look around distraught and all I see are the dead bodies of my fallen comrades around me. As I was trying to regain my focus I saw a black figure on the horizon heading towards me, as the figure got closer I was able to figure out that it was Eren, he was calling out my name "Thomson!" Wanting to run towards him I try to stand but a burst of pain erupts in my lower back and I fall back down to the ground face first_ damn it, why does this all seem familiar?_ Eren finally makes it to me and turns me over to see if I was still alive "Thomson, hey man you still breathing?" I don't respond, I can't respond the pain in my back was so overwhelming that I couldn't even say a word. Eren continued to call out my name seeing if I would respond "Thomson! Thomson! Thomson!" As Eren continued to check if I was alive he failed to notice a Sandman running towards him with a combat knife.

"DIE YOU DEFILER!" The raider tackles Eren down to the ground and raises his knife above his head getting ready to place it down on Eren's chest. But just before the raider was able to thrust his knife down onto Eren he's shot on the head and falls right on top of him. The shot came from our squad mate, Private Sanders, she moves up to Eren to get the raider off of him then helps him get up.

"You alright Eren?" She asks as she hands him his M-16A1 Service Rifle.

"I'm fine thanks to you." He takes the rifle and runs back to me to see if I'm still breathing. "Listen, Sanders, I'm gonna need you to give me cover fire while I move him somewhere safer, Thomson still alive but he's not responding to anything."

"Are you crazy we need to get the hell out of here, forget about him!" A bullet wiz's by over their heads, Sanders crouches down and returns fire while Eren covers me with his body. Eren gets back up and grabs me around my arms and begins to drag me away.

"Listen I'm not going to argue with you Sanders we're getting Thomson out of here, and we're doing it now!" Eren looks around for a place to put me in and sees a cave 6 meters behind him; he begins to drag me there.

"God damn it Eren!" Sanders sticks close to Eren and provides cover fire until we all get into the cave. The cave wasn't really much of a big cave at most it looks like it can house only 6 people; I was placed all the way in the back for my safety.

"Just lay right here, ok buddy?" Eren runs back to the entrance of the cave where Sanders is and takes position with her to shoot back at the enemy "We need to go back to the ambush site and see if anyone else is still alive."

"Don't bother." Sanders say very coldly.

Eren gets angry from her response, "What's wrong with you? I get that we need to stay alive but that doesn't mean we can just leave them behind!"

"I'm not saying that we should leave them behind, if anything I would run over there myself and get them but…" there was an awkward pause before she finishes her sentence "But there all dead, before I got to you I was checking everyone else and nobody else made it, we're the only ones." Eren rested against a wall trying to swallow all of this.

"Oh my God… We're the only ones that made it." Sanders looks at him and smacks his helmet.

"Hey don't give me that crap alright, we're still alive and I intend to keep that way. Now grab your rifle and kick some ass." Sanders words inspire confidence back to Eren and the two fights back against the Sandmen.

Time: 1900hrs

The engagement between us and the Sandmen continued for the next 4 hours and there was no sign of the firefight ending. "Sanders I'm on my last mag!"

"Same here!" The two fires away their last mag in their rifle then switches to their M-9 9mm Pistol sidearm. "Never thought I would go out like this huh Eren?"

"Yeah same here, kind of a bummer really." The two fires away at the Sandmen attacking them until they are on their last magazine again. "Sanders we should pull back to Thomson, we can use the entrance to the cave as a bottleneck."

Sanders looks at me then back to him and nods the two then makes their way back to me and waits for the enemy to come in. The fire from the Sandmen stops for a brief moment and the two catches their breathe. Sanders holds out a grenade "If all else fails we bring them down with us." Eren doesn't completely agree with her logic but he nods anyways, the two changes their attention back to the entrance and braces themselves for an attack. Footsteps and tribal talk becomes louder as the enemy gets closer. "It's been nice knowing you Eren." Sanders pulls the slide back on her pistol and aims at the entrance, the tension of the situation was so strong you could practically taste it.

A tribal war chant is shouted right before 7 Sandmen storms into the cave, Sanders shoots and kills 4 and Eren shoots and kills 3 of them. Another 3 quickly storms into the cave after the first seven were killed but were quickly gunned down by Sanders as soon as she saw them. The Sandmen became angrier from the death of their comrades and 6 more entered the cave, Eren tried to shoot one but his pistol got jammed just as he opened fire. Sanders immediately open fire on the Sandmen, after seeing Eren's pistol jam up, and kill all of them.

"I'm empty Eren, I'm gonna search the raider's and see if they have any ammo!" Sanders gets up and goes towards the dead bodies and begin to search their pockets. Completely unaware of her surroundings a Sandman tries to sneak up on her.

"SANDERS LOOK OUT!" Eren tries to fire his pistol again but was still jammed, Sanders looks up and sees a Sandman charging at her. Flinching from the raider Sanders fell on her butt and tried to get away from him but fails. The Sandman jumps on top of Sanders and begins to stab her savagely, she screams from the pain but that only excited the raider more, the blood that was once in her body was now all over the raider from the repeated stabbing. Eren works as quickly as he could to unjam his weapon but when he looks up he sees that another Sandman joined in and started stabbing her as well "YOU FUCKING BASTARDS!" Eren fires all of his rounds in his pistol at the 2 Sandmen and quickly kills both. Having witnessed the atrocity committed on Sanders he walks up to her and sees the multiple stab wounds that were inflicted on her stomach, the wounds were so severe that you could practically look inside and see all of her organs, not being able to handle all of this Eren gets on his knees and begins to cry. Not being completely dead yet Sanders begins to flinch and tries to talk but only begins to cough out blood, Eren quickly grabs her hands and puts his forehead against hers. Eren tries to speak softly towards her "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry Sanders I got you killed, I'm- I'm so sorry." Sanders takes her left hand out of his grasp and puts it on his right cheek trying to get him to look at her. Eren pulls back and looks at her face; she wipes away the tears off his face then gives him a soft smile before passing away. Eren puts her arms together then takes the grenade Sanders showed him earlier then walks towards me and kneels down "Listen I'm gonna get us out of here, alright Thomson?" He grabs my left arm and puts it over his shoulders and begins to walk out of the cave.

"Eren… What are… You doing?" I say to him in a very quiet voice.

"I'm getting us out of here Thomson; I'm getting us out of here."

As we stepped out of the cave we were immediately stormed by the Sandmen and were taken down to the ground. Eren was beaten more brutally than I since he had killed most of their comrades, once they were done with their beatings they lifted both me and Eren up and presented both of us to who I believed was in charge of this little raid. The man wore gas mask that had a face wrap wrapped around it.

"I will admit you defilers put up a great fight, better than the other defilers we raided." The leader looked directly at Eren and saw that he was starring directly at him extreme prejudice "I can see the hatred in your eyes defiler, did we do something that would make you hate us so passionately?" The leader laughed and so did his men.

"You attack our country, attack my comrades and on top of that you're trying to wipe out a town of all its residents because it's on some kind of stupid holy ground!" The raider takes out his .357 Python revolver and fires it at Eren's right leg causing him to fall to the ground.

"You will not insult our holy ground with your damning words, defiler." The leader aims his revolver towards Eren's head "It's sad really, that the defilers' government will send children to fight its wars. Good bye." The leader puts his trigger finger on the trigger then begins to put pressure on it but before the weapon is fired a gunshot goes off in the distance and before I knew it the leader's hand is completely blown apart, pieces of his bones and muscles is scattered across the desert floor and all is left of his right arm is a stump with blood dripping down and a bone sticking out. The Sandmen quickly goes into a state of panic and starts firing in every direction hoping to hit the sniper, at the corner of my eye I thought I saw a pair of glowing red lights on top of the cave that we were in. In the midst of the confusion I tried to break free from my captors but the two Sandmen had a good grip on me, I continued to fight against them when a bright flash and a loud bang goes off and disorientates both me and the raiders as of result the raiders loses grip and I collapse onto the ground. I waited for the disorienting effect to wear off and by the time I get my sight and hearing back the firefight was over; the area was littered with the dead bodies of the Sandmen and my friends. I get up slowly and looked around and saw my friend Eren face down on the ground, I limp my way towards him and checked to see if he was alive. I shook him to see if he was alive but he doesn't respond, _come on Eren wake up, wake up you bastard!_ I continued to shake him with false hope that he would be alive.

"Your friend is dead, buddy."

I turned around to see on who said that and saw 3 "Black Armor" soldiers towering over me. The soldiers caught me off guard and I fall on my back, one of them walks up and gets closer to Eren's corpse to grab his dog tags.

"The soldier's name is Eren Gernsbeck, he's from the 33rd Battalion and my guess is" she turns her head towards me "so is he."

The man she was talking to walks up to me "You got a name kid?"

Still in shock I don't respond to him but just stare at him.

"The boy is still in shock Frank, you're not gonna get anything out of him."

I try to respond to him but as I was about to speak I pass out and collapse onto the soldiers arms.

"The boy blacked out!" The woman runs towards me to see on what's wrong.

"He's been shot, he might've been bleeding out this whole time, we need to get him to a medic quickly!" Frank wraps his first aid bandages around my wound to stop the bleeding then picks me up and heads towards Termina.


	3. Chapter 3: A New Beginning

Chapter 3: A New Beginning

Termina, N.C.R

Time: 1000hrs

Date: 24/07/2277

I awoke to find myself lying down on a hospital bed wearing nothing but my pair of NCR trousers with bandages wrapped around my whole body. I looked to my left and saw the soldier that had save my life before, he was holding a clipboard in front of him and was reading whatever was on it, I tried to speak but all I was able to make out was a weak moan. The soldier heard the moan and shifted his attention towards me.

"Ah your awake good I was wondering when you'll wake up." He looks down on the paper then back to me "Corporal Robert Thomson, am I correct? Your one lucky son of a bitch you know that? Your medical report says you were shot right in the gut by a 9mm, but luckily the round went right through you and caused no major internal damage."

I tried to speak again "How long….. was I out?"

"You were out for two days, oh and before you speak again the nurse just left you your meal for today next to you I suggest you eat first before we have a conversation."

I sat up slowly and grabbed the tray from my left; the tray had small legs to keep it up so I placed it down on top of my lap and began to eat the food. The meal was just a Brahmin burger, a bowl of tomato soup, a banana and a Nuka Cola drink, nothing special, but sleeping for two days straight made this meal seem like a God send. It took me 10 minutes to finish my meal and once I was done I looked back at him and began asking questions again "Where's my friend Eren? Did he make it?"

"You mean Private Gernsbeck?"

"Yes!"

"He's dead."

"What?"

"I'm sorry to tell you this but your friend died amidst the chaos."

"How'd… how'd he die?" I asked hesitantly.

"Amidst the chaos of the firefight your friend took out a grenade and tried to pull the pin off of it. But the Sandmen immediately saw that and shot him down until he was dead. Worst part was that…" he goes into his trench coat pocket and takes out a grenade with no pin in it then tosses it to me. "It was a dud."

I examined the grenade and realized it was the grenade that Sanders gave him earlier, tears begins to run down my face "Did anyone else made it?"

"I'm afraid no, everyone but you died. I'm so sorry for your loss."

I kept staring at the grenade as my tears drips down from my chin onto my chest soaking my bandages. The soldier, feeling like I should be left alone gets up and grabs his helmet that was sitting on a cupboard by the door and was about to walk out but I asked him one more thing "What should I do now?"

The soldier stops walking and turns his head towards me "Isn't it obvious?" he puts his helmet on "You gotta decide." He walks out of the room and was about to close the door but stops "Oh and when you do decide please do let me know, the names Frank by the way." He closes the door and I am left alone to ponder in my thoughts.

I lied back down on the bed and began thinking about on what that soldier meant when he said, I gotta decide. _What does that even mean? What am I supposed to decide about? _I thought about this for the next 3 hours when the nurse came in for my lunch.

"Good afternoon Thomson, I see that you're finally up."

The nurse was a gorgeous young blonde woman; she had a nice pale skin tone and had a skinny body frame. I sat up slowly so I can start to eat. The nurse grabs the tray off the cart and places it on my lap and I began to eat without saying a word to the nurse. As I was eating I noticed that the nurse hadn't left yet and that she was giving me a pitiful look "Is there something the matter, nurse?"

"Please, call me Nina and no there's no problem it's just you caught me off guard is all."

I give her a confused look "Caught you off guard?"

"Well you see I never taught I'd ever have to treat a soldier that looks like they're around my age."

I thought about on what she said and realized that she was right, I am only 18 years old and she looks like that she's around my age as well.

"So why did you want to become a soldier, Thomson? "

"What do you mean isn't it obvious? I wanted to see places, meet new people and protect the citizens of the New California Republic. Why wouldn't I join?"

"Well aren't you afraid of dying?"

"Afraid of death, me, how could you even ask that!?" My angered response scared the young nurse a bit and she stepped back a bit. "I'm sorry Nina; I shouldn't have gotten angry at you."

"It's alright; I guess it was a stupid question anyways." She puts her head down out of pity.

There was an awkward silence in the atmosphere before I broke it "Okay I guess it's my turn to ask, why did you become a nurse?"

She looks back at me again and smiles "Well I wanted to help people out, without killing anyone."

"Was that supposed to be against me?" I say jokingly.

"Well not entirely" she giggles for a bit right before she grabbed my tray and placed it back on the cart "Listen I gotta go I must tend to the next patient but it was nice talking to you Thomson I'll see you again tomorrow." She waves goodbye and I wave back then walks out of the room with the cart.

Her company was nice while it lasted but I am once again left alone in this run downed pre-war hospital room. With nothing else to do I start thinking on what the Ranger told me earlier and tried to figure out on what he meant by deciding. I get stuck thinking about this for the next few hours before I fell asleep. The nightmare I had a few days back comes to me again in my sleep, except it wasn't interrupted by Eren waking me up. The nightmare went on with its sequences and I relived the horror that I had faced two days ago. The nightmare ends exactly as I experienced it two days ago and I wake up in cold sweat in the middle of the night. I look out of the window and see the moon high in the sky casting its light in the open and baron wasteland. The scenery reminds me all too much of the ambush I went through and I become forlorn. My awakening alerts a Mr. Handy that was nearby and enters my room.

"There was a spike in your heartbeat sir, are you alright?"

"I'm alright robot I just woke up from a nightmare is all."

"Understood sir, very good to hear that you're ok. Well if there's anything you need just call I'll be right outside in the hallways tending to the other patients."

I nod my head then the Mr. Handy leaves the room and I am left alone and wide awake. I stay awake for the next two hours looking out of the window thinking about on what I went through and eventually I fell asleep. These night terrors happen to me for the next week and it takes a huge toll on me, I become less and less energetic during the day and I lost my appetite for food. My situation was becoming grimmer by the days until one night while having the same nightmare something changed, it didn't stop when I blacked out and the scene went from a black background to a desert graveyard. I walked around the graveyard and saw gravestones with the names of my fallen comrades inscribed on it, eventually I found Eren's gravestone; next to it there was an unmarked one with an open grave. I look down into it and I begun to see visions of my friends and loved ones that I've lost over the years. Feeling a huge sense of longing to be with them I extend my arm and was about to jump in.

"So you're gonna give up that easily?"

The voice surprised me and I turned around to be surprised on who it was "Eren, is that you?"

"Of course it is who else could it be?" Eren had an angered expression on his face and had his arms crossed. "What in the world are you doing Robert?"

"I'm about to be with my loved ones again Eren. I can't wait to see my-"

"Robert! You're about to cross into the afterlife, don't you see that?"

"And?"

"And, and!? Robert you're not dead, you don't belong in the afterlife yet."

"So what? If you had a chance to be with your loved ones again wouldn't you take it?"

"Robert, listen to me. Unlike us you still have a chance to live your life, don't throw it away so easily!"

I think about it long and hard and I backed away from the hole then looked at Eren "Your right, being around your deceased loved ones again is nice and all but I still have a life ahead of me and I shouldn't waste that."  
Eren smiles then puts his hand on my shoulder "I knew you'd make the right decision Robert, now please live your life." Eren disappears and I awoke back in the hospital room.

Time: 0900 hours

The clock read 0900, breakfast time, the nurse comes in with a smile on her face and sets down my breakfast in front of me. "Good morning Thomson had a good night sleep?"

"Morning Nina and yes I had a wonderful night." I say very happily before eating my meal.

"Well look at you being all happy what happened last night? A nurse didn't sneak in here last night while no one was up."

We both laugh from her sappy joke "No, I just had a wonderful dream that helped me determine on what I should do next with my life."

"Oh and what will that be, Thomson?"

"That even though it would be easy for me to do so, I shouldn't just give up and quit on myself but instead I should keep on going in living my life." She gives me a smile then a hug.

"Glad to see your back with the living Thomson."

"It's great to be back Nina." I try to get up but fall back down in the bed from my lack of energy "I guess I should rest up before I take my first steps."

"That'd be for the best." We both have a quick laugh before I ate my breakfast then rested up.

I began to eat normally again and my night terrors ceased allowing me to get my needed hours of sleep. After a few days of rehabilitation my body was able to fully recover and I was once again up on my feet. Nina came into my room again for my breakfast but had a ranger with her.

"Morning Thomson I have a visitor for you, I think you remember Frank."

Frank stepped up and took off his helmet "Morning Robert, I heard that you made a full recovery."

"I ran into Frank in the hallways when he was looking for you I told him that I was your nurse and can lead him to you then he asked on how you were doing, so I told him everything."

"I'm happy to hear that you're doing better but I came here to find out if you've decided yet."

"I have Frank, I've decided to get back into the fight and finish my squad's mission."

"I'm glad to hear that, nurse when can he be discharged?"

"This afternoon sir."

"Copy that, I'll see you then Robert." Frank puts his helmet back on then walks out of the room while the nurse turns to me and gives me a concerned look.

"So you're gonna jump back into the fray again?"

"I guess I am, are you worried about me?"

"Of course I am, you're about to put your life in danger again why wouldn't I worry?"

"Aww well I guess you have a point there but this is my choice and I'm not backing out now."

"Well if you're really serious about this then here's something for good luck." She leans over and pushes me against the bed before she kisses me on the lips.

"Wow, do you have any more good luck charms for me?"

She swipes her hair back as she stands back up "Only if you're able to live long enough to come back to me then we'll see if I have more in stored for you." Nina winks at me before she takes her things and tends to the next patients.

Time: 1200 hours

I got up from my bed, first time in a week and a half, and got dressed in my NCR fatigues then headed out to the main lobby where I found Frank signing me out and holding a duffle bag.

"Robert there you are! Are you all ready to go?"

"I'm ready to kill those bastards now."

"Whoa, slow down there buddy. This is your first day out of your bed and you're in no shape to kill anyone let alone a Sandman,"

"What do you mean, I've fully recovered and I-"

"Let me ask you this, back in basic did they ever cover ambush scenarios or hunting down insurgents?"

"No, they didn't."

"Exactly, this area that was recently controlled by the NCR is not fully developed yet. So anybody recruited here not only lacks the training in combat but also the discipline."

"So then what do I do, go through training again?"

"Yes, you're gonna be mentored by one of our own on squad tactics so you won't get yourself killed. I assume you've had basic weapons and survival training so we'll be able to skip that and jump straight into the good stuff."

"So when will I begin my training?"

"That's the fun part; you'll be training while we're out on missions." He drops the duffle bag and walks out of the building. I pick up the bag immediately and run after him.

"Um are you sure that is a good idea?"

"Oh? Getting cold feet are we? What happened to that sense bravado I saw earlier?" He laughs for a bit then talks again "I say experience is the best teacher, so while we go out to eliminate these Sandmen you'll be learning."

We don't talk to each other for the next 30 minutes until we get to the entrance of Termina and stand by the front of a tent.

"So will you be the one tutoring me, Frank?"

"Me? No I'm already a squad leader and law keeper I can't handle any more responsibilities but I do have some one in mind that'll be perfect for you."

We both enter the tent and saw the 2 other rangers that had accompanied Frank during the night of my rescue. Frank began to introduce me to the team and everyone seemed happy to meet me.

"Robert meet the 23rd Ranger platoon 3rd squad. This is Miles and Garnett. Miles is an original Desert Ranger and we have fought side by side even before we merged with the NCR."

Miles got up and shook my hand "Nice to meet you kid." I smiled and shook back.

"And Garnett over there was an NCR Ranger before she became a veteran, she fought against us in the past believe or not. But after being assimilated she was recommended to become a veteran and next thing you know she becomes one of us."

She gets up and shakes my hand like Miles did "Lovely to meet you, Thomson."

"You already know me?"

"We all only know your name, Robert." She turns back to Frank and quickly changes her tone to a serious one "Alright Frank now back to what we talked about a few days back, who's taking the kid under their wing?"

I turn to Frank to see his response "Right, I wanted you to take him under your wing actually, Garnett. You're more accustomed to NCR tactics so I believe you should be able to teach him with no problem at all." I look back at Garnett and saw her face have an irritated look.

She sighs to avoid saying something she'll regret later then talks "Lucky me I guess, alright Thomson listen up wake up early tomorrow and meet me by the main gate at 0700, no later than that." She walks out of the tent and I turn my attention back to Frank.

"So umm where I bunk?" he points his finger to a bottom bunk that's on the left side of the tent and tells me the top bunk is Miles. I nod then walk to my bunk to unpack my stuff, _this is my family now, huh? Welcome to your new life Robert. _


End file.
